AFRICA/LIBYA - Threats to the distribution of water in Tripoli

Tripoli (Agenzia Fides) - The kidnapping of Anoud Senussi, daughter of Gaddafi's former intelligence chief, Abdullah Senussi, has raised protests from the Margani tribe, to whom the family of the kidnapped belongs.
The tribe that lives in Sebha (in the south) has threatened to cut off water supplies in the west of the Country. Some men of the Margani have already sabotaged some power plants that provide energy to the pumps of the Man-Made River, the gigantic aqueduct built in the days of Gaddafi that draws water from fossil aquifers in the desert and carries it for several hundred miles up the west coast.
Local sources refer to Fides that in Tripoli water supplies are at the moment regular even though the population has begun to stock the precious element for fear of cuts in water distribution.
The tribe has launched a 72-hour ultimatum to the authorities so that they find the kidnapped girl, otherwise it will block the flow of water permanently.
The Margani tribesmen also stopped the circulation for a few hours on the A7 motorway that links the north with the south of Libya.
Anoud Senussi was kidnapped soon after being released from prison in Tripoli, where she had been locked up for 10 months on suspicion of having entered the Country using false documents. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 04/09/2013)